654 ΠΡΟΣ ΡΩΜΑΙΟΥΣ Vil.
z Ver. αγ. *évruyxdver ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν 35. τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης eb. VIL.
25. τοῦ Χριστοῦ]; θλίψις, ἢ στενοχωρία, ἢ διωγμός, ἢ λιμός, ἢ yupvd- της, % κίνδυνος, ἢ µάχαιρα; 36. (καθὼς γέγραπται, “΄Ὅτι ἕνεκά σου θανατούµεθα ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν ' ἐλογίσθημεν ὡς πρόβατα σφα-
1 tov ἄριστου; sO most MSS. But SSB, with some cursives and fathers, have του.θεου. This is usually regarded as a change made to agree with ver. 39, because B, after του θεου, adds της ev Χριστω Ιησου. But this may have been added, as Weiss remarks, for the very reason that B already read του θεου ; and as $¥ has του θεου without this addition, and it was very natural to change it (with an eye to wy. 34 and 37) into του Χριστον, it seems probable that του θεον is the original reading.
Weiss adopts it, and W. and Ἡ. put it in marg.
Our position depends upon Jesus Christ who died, nay rather, over whom death no more has dominion (vi. 9), who is at God’s right hand (this phrase, which describes Christ’s exaltation as a sharing in the universal sovereignty of God, is borrowed from Ps. cx. 1, and is oftener used in the N.T. than any other words of the Old), who also makes intercession on our behalf. ὃς καὶ ἐντυγχάνει: a solemn climax is marked by the repetition of ὃς, and by the καὶ which deliberately adds the intercession to all that has gone before. The Christian consciousness, even in an apostle, cannot transcend this. This is Paul’s final security—the last ground of his triumphant assurance: Jesus Christ, at God’s right hand, with the virtue of His atoning death in Him, pleads His people’s cause. Cf. Heb. ix. 24, Vil. 25, 1 John ii. x f.
Ver. 35 f. τίς ἡμᾶς χωρίσει ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Χριστοῦ; If this verse is to Φε most closely connected with νετ. 34, τοῦ Χριστοῦ will appear the more pro- bable reading, for there Christ is the subject throughout; but at vers. 28, 31, 39 the love of God is the determining idea, and at this point it seems to be caught up again in view of the conclu- sion—facts which favour the reading τοῦ θεοῦ. In any case it is the Divine love for us which is meant. With the list of troubles cf. 2 Cor. vi. 4-10, xi. 26 f., xii. 10. They were those which had befallen Paul himself, and he knew that the love of God in Jesus Christ could reach and sustain the heart through them all. The quotation from Ps. xliv. 23 is peculiar. It exactly reproduces the LXX, even the ὅτι being simply transferred. The καθὼς implies that such experiences as those named in ver. 35 are in agreement with what Scripture holds out as the fortune of God’s people. Possibly the mention of the sword recalled to the Apostle’s memory the θανατούμεθα of the psalm,
and suggested the quotation. The point of it, both in the psalm and in the epistle, lies in ἕνεκεν cov. This is what the Psalmist could not understand. That men should suffer for sin, for infidelity to God, was intelligible enough ; but he and his countrymen were suffering because of their faithfulness, and the psalm is his despairing expostulation with God. But the Apostle understood it. To suffer for Christ’s sake was to enter into the fellow- ship of Christ’s sufferings, and that is the very situation in which the love of Christ is most real, near, and sure to the soul. Cf. chap. v. 3, 2 Cor. i. 5, Coi. i. 24. Instead of despairing, he glories in tribulations.
Ver. 37. ὑπερνικῶμεν: a word pro- bably coined by Paul, who loves com- pounds with ὑπέρ The Vulg. gives superamus, with which Lipsius agrees (obsiegen, like over-power): but Cyprian supervincimus. Later Greek writers distinguish νικᾶν and ὑπερνικᾶν (see Grimm, s.v.), and justify the happy ren- dering ‘‘we are more than conquerors”. Perhaps it is a mistake to define in what the ‘‘more” consists ; but if we do, the answer must be sought on the line indi- cated in the note on ἕνεκεν σοῦ: these trials not only do not cut us off from Christ’s love, they actually give us more intimate and thrilling experiences of it. διὰ τοῦ ἀγαπήσαντος ἡμᾶς: the aorist points to Christ’s death as the great demonstration of His love: ef. Gal. ii. 20, also Rev. xii. 11.